Collaboration and Partnerships

UBCCC serves the UB community in other ways as well. It functions as a work site for work study students through the Office of Financial Aid, and is used by several departments and programs (e.g., Interdisciplinary Science, Occupational Therapy, Honors Program, Psychology, Dental School, Speech & Language Hearing, Health & Human Services) for observation of young children, internship and community service projects.

Erie Community College

UBCCC North and South are training sites for Erie Community College Lab II & III interns and student teachers. Students are in the centers for a five week placement, three days per week.

While in the classroom, the Lead Teacher acts as their mentor and supervising teacher, and the students participate in daily classroom activities. Students are required to write lesson plans and carry out some of their planned activities. If a student requests to use pictures or other information about a child, the parent will be contacted and permission to do so will be requested.

Interns are never counted in the classroom ratios or left alone with children. They submit to background checks and have medical clearance through ECC. Many have completed CPR & FA training as part of their ECC coursework when they are placed at UBCCC. They can be identified by their maroon aprons and nametags.

St. Mary's School for the Deaf

The goal is for the children to play with, socialize with and learn from their hearing peers. This is a perfect and wonderful opportunity to use the listening and speaking skills they learn at St. Mary’s in a fun, natural, language-rich environment. The EARS children are also able to practice their self-advocacy skills. They can practice asking a friend to speak up a bit or the teacher if they can move their seat. Children are curious by nature, so when the EARS kiddos are asked about their devices or why they didn’t answer a friend right away, they can use the appropriate responses they’ve been taught.

Both UBCCC and the EARS preschoolers look forward to this unique and rewarding learning experience.

In recent years, the University has been increasing efforts to make Lake LaSalle a more active part of the university landscape. As a logical addition to this initiative, the University at Buffalo Child Care Center (UBCCC) proposed the idea of a multi-use classroom that would float on Lake LaSalle. As part of the SEAS Experiential Learning Programs two student teams from Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering developed conceptual designs for a floating classroom with input from Dan Ball, Teacher at UBCCC and Russ Crispell, Director of Outdoor Pursuits during the Spring 2015 semester.

As undergraduate students working on this extracurricular project to enhance their educational experience, they are also looking to enrich life for the campus and surrounding community, and introduce a new, unique, and interactive learning environment. The preliminary classroom concept has been designed to facilitate: (i) exploration for toddlers and preschool children with a view out over the water, (ii) an immersive experience that puts the classroomin an ideal setting to support lectures and labs where ecology, environment and sustainability are central, and (iii) a unique community space to host events and display artwork. In addition, the design embraces use of recycled materials in alignment with the university’s vision for sustainability.

During the 2015/16 academic year, the students are continuing their work with a goal to take the floating classroom from concept to reality. The team is comprised of seven undergraduate and graduate students from CSEE, with mentorship from Dr. Andrew Olewnik (SEAS Director of Experiential Learning), as well as a professional engineer and UB alumnus, Jason Havens (Project Engineer & Manager with Clark Patterson Lee).

The establishment of a floating classroom on Lake LaSalle will serve as an exciting attraction for new and prospective students, support the creativity of our existing students, and even inspire the community to always be willing to do something out of the ordinary. As current civil and environmental engineering students, they are excited of the potential to see their designs come to life at their future alma mater.

UB Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences

UB Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences Dietetic Internship Program

This program trains BS level students to become registered dietitians.

The UB Child Care Center is now a permanent rotation site for students in this internship program. This means that each semester, an intern is present at the center for 40 hours per week for 8 weeks. They work with children, staff, and parents to promote healthy eating and safe food handling practices.

UB Department of Psychology

Dr. Jamie Ostrov directs an ongoing research project: Peers and Social Development in cooperration with the Department of Psychology and the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York.

The Peers and Social Development project is a study of preschoolers' peer relationships, early personality, emotion regulation, empathy and social development. More specifically, the study is interested in assessing peer relationships preschoolers have and how these relationships are related to their social development. For example, the researchers are interested in the development of both negative (aggressive) as well as positive social peer behavior (prosocial or sharing behavior) for young boys and girls. This project is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NFS).

To learn more about Dr. Ostrov's research, please visit the following links:

UB School of Dental Medicine

The Smile Team educates and improve general dental and oral hygiene to the children at our center.

UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Poison Prevention and Awareness Doctor of Pharmacy students provide presentations during National Poison Prevention Week about poison safety to our preschool and pre-Kindergarten classrooms.

UB Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Program - Health and Human Service

UBCCC North and South are training sites for undergraduate students in UB’s Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Program’s Health and Human Service major. Early Childhood Studies students are required to do a one semester internship (150 hours) that provides them with the opportunity to learn the practical workings of the Early Childhood field. Students are exposed to the principles of confidentiality in their coursework and required to follow basic principles of confidentiality. Lead Teachers act as the supervising teachers.

Interns are never counted in the classroom ratios or left alone with children. They submit to background checks and have medical clearance as all staff members of UBCCC. Some interns have CPR & FA certification. UB interns wear paper nametags while in the classroom.

Many of our former interns are hired after completing their coursework and graduating from their respective study programs. Because of our cooperation with UB and ECC as a training site, UBCCC has the opportunity to hire highly qualified staff members who have experience and knowledge of the UBCCC philosophy and setting.